Machine for forming bodies from pulp



(No Model.) r H. FAIRBANKS & H. PARKER.

MACHINE FOR FORMING BODIES FROM PULP.

No. 557.197. Patented M21131, 1896.

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UNITED STATES PATE T OFFICE.

HENRY FAIRBANKS AND HOlVARD PARKER, OF ST. 'JOl-INSBURY, VERMONT.

MACHINE FOR FORMING BODIES FROM PULP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 557,197, dated March 31, 1896.

Application filed November 27, 1893. Serial No. 492,081. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, HENRY FAIRBANKS and HOWARD PARKER, of St. J ohnsbury, in the county of Caledonia and State of Vermont, have jointly invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Forming Bodies from Pulp, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

This invention relates to the class of apparatus employed to take a layer of wet pulp from a supply of the sanie in suspension and transfer it while being partially dried to a roll or form, around which it is wound.

Our improvements, as herein represented, are especially adapted to the formation of tapering bodies from successive layers of pulp taken from a tank by an obliquely-placed straining and carrying wheel; but some of the novel features are equally applicable to cylindrical forms.

The several features of our invention are hereinafter fully describedwith reference to the drawings, and are particularly referred to in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section and with parts broken away, of a machine embodying our improvements. Fig. 2 is a vertical central section of the same. Figs. 3 and 4 are details of the preferred form of couch-roller and shield or air-stop.

A represents a pulp-tank, and B an educt or water-passage leading from the lower part thereof and formed with a broad arc-shaped mouth, extending in a curve from the pulplevel on one side of the tank to the same level on the other side. (See Fig. 1.)

C is an inclined wheel revolving with its shaft D in suitable bearings E and driven by a worm F and gear G or any other convenient power and at proper speed.

The wheel 0 has upon its face between two concentric rings 0 adjacent to its periphery, an annular reticulated portion 0, upon which the pulp is deposited in a suitably thick layer by the suspending water escaping from the tank through the educt B, this annular portion of the moving wheel continually presenting a fresh part of its screen-surface to admit the water to but exclude the pulp from the arc-shaped mouth of the educt. To resist this pressure, the gauze-ring C is supported by a succession of transverse rods 0, strained across and spanning the space between the concentric rings C of the carrying-wheel. The pulp is taken up on the gauze-surface, the water gradually escaping through its meshes and passing freely between the rods 0. The back of the two rings 0 of the carrying-wheel bears for support against a packing along the curved mouth of the educt, which prevents escape of the pulp. Additional supports may be provided opposite to the couch-roller and at other point-s. The slow rotation of this wheel 0 well serves to keep the pulp in suspension. The wires or rods 0, strained like the spokes of a bicyclewheel, give sufficient strength and, being near together, furnish support to the gauze-ring much as in the ordinary mold wheel or roll the peripheral gauze of the cylinder is supported by the parallel wires beneath it.

ll represents the couch-roll, in this instance of frusto-conical form, and adapted to revolve in surface-contact with the annular gauze portion of the wheel 0. The couch takes from the gauze the layer of semiliquid pulp and transfers it to the press-roll or forml, which is also in rolling contact with the couch.

We prefer to employ two or more forms I, as heretofore practiced, arranged to come successively into action, so that when a sufficiently thick body or sleeve of the material has been formed by winding several films of the pulp around one form another form may be brought into position, and the action of the machine may proceed while the formed body is being removed from the first form.

The couch-roll should for the best results be hollow with its entire periphery finelyperforated, and a strong suction through such perforations draws the water from the pulp layer into and away from the roll. For this purpose a suction-fan J, having obliquelyplaced blades and driven at a high speed is preferred, and we have combined such a spiral or screw fan with the couch and carryingwheel with excellent results. One end of the couch H is closed while the other is an open or skeleton frame. Closely adjacent to this is the case K in which the fan J revolves, driven by the pulley L on shaft M and serving to extract a large percentage of the moisture remaining in the pulp layer. The fan-blades may be partly within the end of the suctioncouch. The water so withdrawn is discharged through a pipe i A portion of the surface of the couclrroll carries no pulp, and is furnished with a stop or shield S to prevent the inlet of air through the perforations. Such shield forming a segment of a truncated cone is preferably internal and secured to the stationary axle it around which the couch revolves, but maybe external and secured to the frame. In either case it is suitably packed with relation to the moving couch to exclude air without causing unnecessary friction.

The couch-roll (more particularly represented in the detail Fig. is of novel construction. It is formed with a body of metal, preferably covered with hard rubber, to which are cemented or vulcanized narrow peripheral rings of yielding soft rubber forming flanges, and between these flanges or rings the hard body of the shell is perforated with circumferential rows of holes so close together as to allow free passage for water from the grooves between the flanges into the interior of the roll.

e sometimes omit the hard rubber and vulcanize or cement the soft rubber directly upon the metal body. Ve prefer to finely serrate the yielding surface to better facilitate the passage of the water pressed from the pulp layers. The covering straining-cloth which encircles the couch as a sleeve in the usual way is thus held up on a series of points. Holes through the soft rubber would be closed by pressure, but the grooves between the flanges allow the free passage of water strained through the covering-cloth into the interior of the roll, and the changes of form under pressure will assist to wash out all clinging fibers of pulp.

The drawings represent a bearing M for the fan-shaft M at the end of a non-rotating stud or bar 0 inserted axially into the hollow shaft D of the carrying-wheel. A stop-pin through one side of said shaft enters a groove in said stud and holds it against withdrawal. A hearing supported by suitable framework secured to the tank may be substituted, if preferred. The shaft M is represented as tubular and revolving around the stationary axle of the couch-roll.

It is obvious that our perforated couch with elastic flanges may be of cylindrical form and adapted for use with various kinds of wet machines, also that the spiral exhausting-fan and the air stop or shield may with equal advantage be applied to cylindrical couches.

o claim as our joint invention- 1. The tank A adapted to contain pulp in suspension and provided with the educt B, in combination with the carrying-wheel G, having an annular gauze portion forming a continuous screen closing the educt to the passage of pulp, substantially as set forth.

2. A pulp-tank provided in its lower portion with a water-passage, and an oblique carrying-wheel having an annular permeable portion caused to revolve within said tank and to take up a layer of pulp at the mouth of such passage, in combination with a suitable couch-roll and a forming or pressing roll, substantially as set forth.

3. A tank adapted to contain pulp in suspension and provided with an educt for escape of the suspending water, and an oblique carrying-wheel revolving in said tank and having near its periphery a gauze annulus forming a movable screen between the tank proper and said educt, in combination with a hollow, perforated, suction couch-roll adapted to transfer the layer of pulp from said annulus to the forming or pressing roll, and to extract the water therefrom during such transfer, substantially as set forth.

4. The wheel 0 having concentric rings C-, the inner ring being directly connected with the axle, and the outer one joined to the inner one by a closely-set series of radial wires 0, strained across the intermediate space, in combination with a gauze annulus resting directly on said wires, substantially as set forth.

5. A suction couch-roll, having a hollow body, through the hard periphery of which are numerous perforations arranged in circumferential rows, between which rows are annular flanges of soft compressible rubber, standing out from the hard body of the roll, which under pressure nearly meet to make the yielding surface of the roll continuous, but which being circumferential, cannot fold over to close the holes, these several parts in com bination with eachother as specified.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HENRY FAIRBANKS. IIOXVARD PARKER. \Vitn csses:

.T. C. CLARK, II. C. 3on1). 

